The Green Flame
The Green Flame appears in the Return to Jurassic Park Comic series. But it never becomes clear what that flame was, and why Biosyn wanted to find it so desperately. An InGen scientist A. Gershon is mentioned in The Lost World: Jurassic Park video game. This fanfic is based on events from the Jurassic Park novels, movies, movie scripts, comics, novelettes and games. A real JP fan can see the allusions. *'Date:' 02/01/2011 *'Location:' Dino Lab Research Center My name is Professor Abraham Gershon. I was born at April 25th 1953. What follows now is an overview of events in which I took part. All the intrigues of InGen are now well known, InGen has now for always became the archetype mad scientist organisation. Therefore people have always mocked InGen. The most common joke about InGen is that ingen means nobody or no-one in Swedish. No-one can deny that it was me who saved InGen in the end, or that what has survived of it. Like many great scientific breakthroughs my discovery was pure coincidence. If that reckless boy hadn't been around, I would never have discovered the true nature of the Green Flame. The world changed I went to the University when I was 17. I was determined to become a biochemist. I graduated in 1975 and earned my Ph.D in 1980. In "80s I was invited by the famous geneticist Henry Wu to join him in a rather strange project. First I didn't belief it was possible. After that I didn't wanted to support such a project. But later I realized that if I wouldn't do it someone else would. Every scientist wants to make a spectacular breakthrough, so this was the chance of a life time. I became a scientist for the company InGen and joined the Dinosaur Recreation Project. How we recreated the dinosaurs and the disaster of the Isla Nublar Incident are now well known, so it would be total bandwidth waste to write about that here. All our chances to become rich with our project were now totally gone. All the billions that our project had needed were now lost. The Park was gone and the will to make a new one also, that poor Hammond didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Struggle to survive InGen was filed for chapter 11. The costs InGen had to pay were enormous. Wrongful death settlements list: family of Jophery, 20 million dollars; family of Donald Gennaro, 36.5 million dollars; family of John Arnold, 23 million; family of Robert Muldoon, 12.6 million. Damaged or destroyed equipment, 17.3 million. And the many media payoffs etc etc. Everyone would have thought that there would be no InGen anymore. The company Biosyn proposed to John Hammond to buy InGen. Hammond didn't knew what to do. The lawyers and shareholders were mad against him. Donald Genarro, the one with who he had build InGen from nothing, was dead. Ian Malcolm, to who John had sought counsel many time during the project, was in hospital and unconcious. And Henry Wu, the spider in the web of this whole project, has disappeared from the planet. No-one knows what happend to that brilliant scientist, who had been able to do the impossible. It was that moment that I thought I should play a role in this story. I didn't wanted to lose my job, I had also worked hard to recreate these extinct creatures and wanted to have credit for it! I thought of a plan to make as much money as InGen needed for survival. InGen had made a lot of products that were worth al lot of money. We could sell our genetic marker Gamma-amino methionine hydrolase for a good price. We had also made a lot of DNA sequencing techniques that were far better than the ones that were used at that time. But our project had always used the so-called "“whole-genome shotgun” method, that was a method that was very controversial and most geneticists didn't used it. Nonetheless the could sell a lot of sequencing related techniques. We also sold a lot of gene sequences, in modern times DNA sequences have to be freely accessible but (lucky for us) not in those days. Ofcourse we didn't tell anyone beside the judges and the government that we had created dinosaurs, so we couldn't make their sequence publicly. But for the project we also had to sequence the genome of Chickens, Emu's, Ostriches, crocodiles and alligators. We had found DNA of dinosaurs but their chromosomes had been broken in tiny pices. There was no way to tell how all those pices had to be combined to make chromosomes. The epigentic information of the DNA was also completely lost. Therefore we had to look at the closed living relatives of the dinosaurs, birds and Crocodilia, and use their chromosomal structure as a reference. The sequences of those creatures we could sell then, and they made InGen famous. No company had ever produced so many sequences. But many scientists were very skeptic about whole genome sequences, no-one believed you could sequence a whole genome accurately with a whole-genome shotgun analysis. A long tale short, InGen became quite famous and attracted new investers. Still, all this was a pathetic excuse for the profit we and the shareholders hoped for. InGen's stock dropped from seventy-eight and a quarter to nineteen. BUT, InGen wasn't bankrupt! Many of us hoped that if we kept de dinosaurs secret we could one day open a new Jurassic Park. Deconstruction of Isla Nublar The Costa Rican government demanded InGen to deconstruct all of the Isla Nublar facilities, organic and inorganic. Because InGen didn't responded quickly enough the US army landed on the island and claimed it for its own. The army would deconstruct the facilities and InGen had to sign the checks. It was an operation that would cost one hundred and twenty-six million dollars. Now I knew how brilliant it was of John Hammond to build the park not on the same island as our research stations. The park and the fake laboratory of Isla Nublar were discovered and cleaned up by strangers, but InGen's real secrets were savely at Isla Sorna. The US had hired Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler as advisors. I have heard there was an incident. Some fool of Biosyn tried to steal some dinosaurs and kidnapping the scientists. Ofcourse, with those creatures one could build a financial empire. I helped John Hammond to stop Biosyn from building their own Jurassic Park in Columbia. I've heard it was a very tough battle. Lucky for us Robert Muldoon had recovered from the hospital and could aid us in our fight. Apart from that incident, the deconstruction went smoothly. Even the US army didn't wanted to kill the last remaining dinosaurs. So they had to be transported to an other place. The easiest option would be to bring them to the other dinosaurs on Isla Sorna, but I didn't wanted the US army near our secret facillities. I wouldn't risk my life work. So, I ordered the army to bring the animals to Isla Matanceros. It was the most northern island of the Five Deaths, but it was a good distance away from Site B. Rumours of a Green Flame ____________________________________________________________________________________________ A men dressed as a US soldier is running through a dark and scary tropical forest. He is running fast and yells in his phone: "Corporal! Corporal! It's private S.T. Van Holm! I'm lost on Isla Nublar... aswer me!" But there is no answer. The soldier stops running and looks around in the hostile forest. "Why do I bother... If I didn't knew better I would think they have all left this island without me." He keeps trying to see something in the darkness... Then he suddenly hears a sound behind him, he quickly turn around and aims with his gun... nothing. Yet still, he sees a strange group of small green lights on the ground. 'Odd', he thinks. "I anybody there?" he shouts, but there is no answer. Then he decides to walk to the lights and inspect them. "Light emissing mushrooms... I had seriously hoped it were the lights of one of my mates", he says agry. Then he hears the terrible roar of a Tyrannosaurus. The soldier immediately aims in the direction of the sound. "He is still a good distance away, Private..." The soldier runs away from the sound. After a while he arrives at some sort of hill. "Maybe I can take shelter on the top of that." When he tries the climb the hill he relises it has stone stairs. "Again, odd". From a distance it would be clear that it is a small pyramid. When the soldier arrives ate the upper plateau he sees: ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Everything turned to rest again. I had time to think of ways to keep InGen alive, as I told above. Later a group of fisherman found an army soldier at Isla Nublar. They said they had seen a mysterious Green Flame at the island. Ofcourse, we didn't knew what to think about it so John Hammond asked Dr. Grant and Ellie to go to Isla Nublar to investicate these claims. Since Isla Nublar was now supposed to be devoid of dinosaurs they agreed. Muldoon and an InGen member named Edgar also joined them. Strangely Biosyn already knew about this strange flame and had already send a team, Sonya Durant and Raul Lopez, to find it. I have been so busy with keeping InGen alive that I never really understood or remembered what was going on. I heard the two teams joined forces. They were attacked by a Tyrannosaurus, that was strangely still at the island. When the team tried to escape from the island they were arrested by the 'US army'. The group managed to escape, and then used Hammond's submarine to leave the island. After that many, many more things happened on the island. But Hammond had put me in charge to take care for InGen, he would take care for the island and the animals, so I did. I had lived years in exile at Isla Sorna, now I was finally back in the real world and wanted to enjoy life. It was then that I finally found a wife, when I didn't had to work for InGen I spended all time with her. Alan Grant, Ellie and Muldoon survived, that was all that really mattered. Site B was still a secret. The rest I didn't had to know. But one thing did puzzled me: What was that Green Flame? Why would a biotech company like Biosyn send a team to find it?? Why would people kill for it??? Failed experiment It was in 1996 that Hammonds nephew Peter Ludlow came up with the idea to open a small Jurassic Park in San Diego. With this park, that contained only seven species, we could obtain enough money to revive InGen. But when I told the idea to John Hammond he became furious. Capturing dinosaurs from the islands was 'rapeture' of his 'Lost World'. I tried to explain to him that we would only need 10 to 15 of the 500 creatures of the island, not more. But Hammond stood his ground. Poor John Hammond... A few weeks later Peter Ludlow arranged a board meeting. He told his plans for a new Jurassic Park to the board. Everyone knew in what state InGen was. We really needed profit for survival. Ludlow proposed a resolution: :"Whereas the Chief Executive Officer has engaged in wasteful and negligent business practices to further his own personal environmental beliefs - - :Whereas these practices have affected the financial performance of the company by incurring significant losses - - :Whereas the shareholders have been materially harmed by theses losses - - :Thereby, be it resolved that John Parker Hammond should be removed from the office of Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately." The board members who agreed with this resolution had to raise their hand. I raised my hand, so was everyone else. Ludlow and his hunters went to Isla Sorna to capture dinosaurs. But Hammond had send a team too, and they sabotaged our plan. They were are attacked off-guard. Luckely most of Hammonds and our team survived. They lost all the dinosaurs and their equipment, but they had a male Tyrannosaurus rex. That specimen alone could have saved InGen. But because those utter fouls didn't drugged the creature properly it alsmost died during the shipment. They didn't knew what to do and gave the him an antidode. Then it killed almost all crew member, and later rampaged trough the streets of San Diego. It was a debacle! The T. rex and his young was shipped back to Isla Sorna. This time the army was in charge of the mission and everything went fine. This proved to me that is the T. rex was properly shipped, we could have brought it savely to our new park and contain it. But alas... InGen was held responsible for all damage and lives lost. When InGen paid all costs it was bankrupt! Deserved fame But at the same time people became VERY interested in the creature they had seen. Moreover, all scientists wanted to know how InGen had created those creatures. Hammond and I wrote an article for the Scientific American in which we told the ENTIRE story of InGen's rise and fall. The creation of the dinosaurs was told, together with the downfall of the two Jurassic Parks. The scientific community was totally flabbergasted! Institutes from all over America and Europe had worked together for 8 years to fully sequence all Human DNA, it was called the Human Genome Project. They still weren't finished with their project. On the contrast, InGen had fully sequenced 15 species in 5 years! I was invited to give lectures at all universities around the world about how InGen had done that job. InGen's main scientist, Henry Wu, was still missing; so all people went to me. Scientists were very surprised that we had sequenced all those species with the Whole Genome Shotgun Method. This method was know for a long time, but everyone had assumed it was to inaccurate for large genomes. Inspired by my talk, Craig Venter started his own Human Genome Project in 1998 using the shotgun method. With a single laboratory he had fully sequenced the Human genome in 2000, two years. Now everyone understood how InGen had sequenced so many species in so little time with a single laboratory. I became a science celeb, I didn't need a job anymore. I made a living of giving lectures, at last I had the fame I deserved. John Hammond wrote the book Jurassic Time in which he told the entire Jurassic Park operation in great detail. The book was a huge succes, but most people didn't believed it. The United Nations had placed a non-flying zone over all InGen's islands, so no-one could see further proof for Hammonds story. Moreover, John Hammond died soon after the publication. He couldn't defend his testimony. No-one could know for sure how many species we had resurrected besides the T. rex. Many people had asked to visit the island to make a documentary film of the creatures. But the UN had concluded, from the testimony of the survivors of the InGen operation, that the island was too dangerous for humans. No-one was allowed near the islands. The Green Flame I had discovered that humans had lived on Isla Nublar before InGen had purchased the island. Hammond had promised to give them houses, education and medicine in Costa Rica. Hammond had created a large budget for these people. However, he was so occupied that he assigned other InGen officials to deal with this matter. These people kept most of the money for themselves... and the Nublarians had to live in poverty. I made a strong case that Isla Nublar should be given back to its people. Because it was over 30 years ago that the people left the island, most of the board members didn't saw the use of it. Ofcourse, all dinosaurs of Isla Nublar were gone. So were all InGen's buildings and equipment. Except for the Geothermal Power Plant. Costa Rica still used it to produce green energy. So, InGen's interest in Isla Nublar was long gone. The board had no trouble with the people living there again. However, I wanted InGen to pay for new houses and other costs. They were difficult to persuade, but in the end I succeeded. I visited Isla Nublar a lot. I wanted to make sure justice was done to the people this time. Within two months all Nublarians and their descendents had returned to the island. Another sin of John Hammond was undone. Why do I tell this? It was now that I learned another thing about the Green Flame. On Isla Nublar, I was able to talk to one of the elders of the tribe. This is roughly how the interview went: * Gershon: "Do you know anything about a green flame on this island?" * Elder: "Yes, it used to be a central part of our religion. The Aztecs crossed the sea and discovered these islands. This island and the Five Deaths are vulcanic, so geysers and sulphur smoke were all over the place. But on some locations, a strange green flame would come out of the ground." * Gershon: "Only on Isla Nublar?" * Elder: "On Isla Nublar, and all of the Five Deaths." * Gershon: "was there something... ANYTHING special about these flames??" * Elder: "They were cursed." * Gershon: "I am sorry? * Elder: "Everyone who touches the flame... turns green." * Gershon: "The flesh turns green?" * Elder: "Yes, the flesh would start to glow green, like fireflies. It would take hours before the glow was gone." * Gershon: "And they became a part of your religion?" * Elder: "The legend tells that there was once lived a great Azted warrior on this island. One day he was captured by an evil king. The Warrior could chose how he wanted to be executed. The king gave him five choices. The Warrior chose all of them. He had such a strong soul that he had to be killed 5 times before he died. On each island of the Five Deaths the Warrior was killed once. Each time a piece of his spirit would leave his body. That piece became a green flame. * Gershon: "I see." * Elder: "Because the evil king was so occupied with killing the Warrior, a new Aztec army could reach this island. The Aztecs killed the evil king. The Aztecs found the pieces of the Warriors spirit. A pyramid was build on top of every flame. The flame would burn in a holy chamber in the center of the pyramid. So, we could honour the Warrior." * Gershon: "Can I see such a Flame?" * Elder: "The Flame of this island is long gone. Maybe because the Warrior was never killed on this island." * Gershon: "And what about the other islands?" * Elder: "No-one knows. The five Deaths were struck by storms long ago. The people believed it was the rage of the Warrior, that they were unable to temper. Therefore, they all people moved to this island." * Gershon: "But if I wanted to see these Flames. they should be inside the Pyramids, right." * Elder: "Yes, unless they have disappeared too. But, I think you shouldn't disturb those old temples." Jurassic Park Institute In 2001 a boy named Eric Kirby landed accidentally on Isla Sorna. Alan Grant and his parents went after him and were rescued by the American army. Alan Grant was the paleontologist that had been our advisor in the InGen project. He had a deep love for dinosaurs, and had always studied them. But now he was unable to raise funds for his excavations. Everyone knew living dinosaurs were living on Isla Sorna, public opinion was that those should be studied. Alan Grant had always been skeptical about how accurate the creatures were recreated, he had called them "theme park monsters" in a talk. But now he had once again seen that most creatures had the characteristics that he had predicted from fossils. Alan wanted to study the creatures on the island now. Not only for data mining, but als because he had seen that the ecology of the island was out of balance. The island was to small for a population of 500 dinosaurs, moreover there were too many predators. The only problem for Alan Grant was that it wasn't allowed to enter the islands. Alan Grant knew that everyone assumed that the island was to dangerous for humans, but Eric Kirby was the living counter evidence. Eric, a 13 year old boy, had survived on the island for 8 weeks; without weapons or survival training. If Eric could survive on the island, a well armed group of scientists certainly would. Alan Grant proposed his idea to the UN General Assembly on september 1st, 2001. His plans were approved! A research center would be build on the island to study and preserve the dinosaurs: the Jurassic Park Institute. Scientists and other people that had worked for InGen were now asked to work for the Jurassic Park Institute, I joined. In the next months a small area on Isla Sorna was surrounded by a new electric fenche, here the researchers could defend themselves against the dinosaurs. That area was the InGen Compound. Old buildings that were still in good shape were cleaned, other buildings were removed and new ones were build. We called it the Ranger Station. The old laboratory was cleaned and new instruments were placed. It was so strange! I am now sitting behind my desk in the same room I used to work 10 years ago. After a few weeks it wasn't weird anymore. I studied dinosaur tissue as if I had never left this island. I had to scan the DNA of all the creatures to see if dangerous mutations had accumulated during the last 10 years. I also studied the immune system of the animals. Meanwhile dr. Grant was studying the animals behavior. He also captured so animals, like the Spinosaurus, and moved them to other parts of the island or to other islands. Alan Grant believed that when the animals were better distributed over the five islands there might arise some kind of ecological balance. But he had stressed many times that at least an island with the size of Ireland was needed to support these giants. Back to Jurassic Park Apart from the incident in 2001 everything went really well. We even started to allow small amounts of visitors to the Ranger Station to see the dinosaurs. Alan Grant had opposed the idea in the strongest terms, but the station really needed additional funding for all the projects he had in mind. So, a small hotel (called the "Safari Lodge") was built. This was the booking website: It was a spectacular succes! If you booked now, it could take years before it was your turn. I had asked Alan to allow more visitors, but he didn't wanted to hear anything of that. Each week a group of 15 people was coming to the island. I showed them the legendary laboratory that had recreated these wonderful creatures. Alan Grant was a tourist attraction of his own, but he really disliked that. Nonetheless he showed the group the animals. We had build high stone watchtowers in the open fields of the island. With helicopters the tourists were placed on top of those towers. The viewing towers were low enough to see the animals in enough detail, but to high for Raptors to climb on them. I decided that sept nobody really ever interacted with it I sent Dr.Mollica too isla sorna but he got infected with sample M but you can read about that on the Isla Sorna Investigations talk page. Soon he found a temple and found a way too heal himself but thats a secret that I'm not saying. Ehh... yes. In August 2010 we brought a group of tourists to a tower that stood beside a lake. One of them was a slightly irritating reckless boy who called himself Dr.Mollica. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Fifteen tourists had assemble at the central square of the Ranger Station. There were a lot of children among them. They were (clearly) all very excited. All of them were wearing clothes from the local tourist shop "Jurassic Outfitter". Most men and boys were wearing army coloured shirts with "I Survived Isla Sorna" on it. The girls wore tops with "Clever Girl". Dr. Grant and the guard Ingliasias walked in their direction. Ingliasias had been working on this island since the Station's construction. He had proven himself very skillful at fighting any kind of dinosaur. Grant knew that if anyone could protect these people against sudden attacks, it was Ingliasias. "Nervous Doctor?" Grant look at the smiling Ingliasias, "I've had worse". The group greeted the two men. "Good morning everyone, today the two of us will be your guides on your tour. Ingliasias will come today as security guard. He one of the best dinosaur hunters on this island. So, I'm sure we will be save with him around." Ingliasias smiled at the group, "if you want campfire stories, just ask." A large helicopter started to decent above them. "That is the Stork that will bring us to the location." The plane was army coloured and the words STORK IV was painted on its sides. The plane was just large enough for this group. When they were all inside the plane lifted off again. The kids looked out of the window and saw the Ranger Station shrink beneath them. The plane headed west. "Today we will visit the Temple Tower. It is called like that because it is build not far from a couple of Aztec Pyramids. The Tower stand next to an artificial lake. So, you should see herd of dinosaurs drinking there." Soon you could see the small lake in the forest, and the large tower was there too. The top of the tower was large enough for the plane to land on. After it landed, the engine was stopped. The tourist ran out of the plane toward the breastwork. To make sure the visitors could never fall of the tower, a 4 meter high fence was build around the open space. All the tourists were looking at the herd of sauropods that were drinking from the lake. "What species is that Dr. Grant?" Grant smiled, "well, it resembles Mussaurus. But remember, these creatures don't resemble the original enough to assume they are the same species or even genus. I have called them Mussauride sornalis." Ingliasias looked at the people. They all shooted to each other. They took pictures of each other with the dinosaurs, and all the other things a tourist does. Being a guard on the trips was a boring job. They towered high above even the biggest carnivores. The towers we strong enough to widstand an attack of any dinosaur. The sides of the towers were armed by iron spikes, so raptors wouldn't climb to the top. The only treat could come from the sky... But all Pteranodons had been captured. So... the only enemy could be a human. "Doctor Grant, are we gonna see a Tyrannos..." "Oh no, not that story again," Ingliasias thought. He took his phone and called the Control Room. "Temple Tower to Control Room. Do you hear me?" The Control Room was a large futuristic room, filled with the most modern computers. Behind one of them was a young women who looked at serveral screens showing lots of data and maps. "Jessica Harding here." "Hello Jess, could you scan the perimeter of the Temple Tower?" "Ok" Jess zoomed in to the Temple Section of the island. She uploaded the latest infrared spots that satalites had detected in that sector. The computer could make a rough prediction to what dinosaurs these spots belonged. "You know I'am not working here to entertain you while you're supposed to keep watch?" "If there WAS a T. rex nearby, the tourists HAVE to know." Jess compared the spot data with the images from the security camera's. Ingliasias saw that a boy was climbing in the fence to have a better view. Going higher and higher. Jess answered, "well, there is a group of Ornitholestes waiting in the forest to drink when the Mussaur herd is gone." "To bad," he answered neutral. The boy had reached the top of the fence. "Apuesto mil pesos que se cae." "Get off that cage RIGHT NOW!" Alan Grant shooted. But the boy was totally ignoring everyone, the view was so great from up there. "Don't worry, I never fall." Then a very large red dragonfly landed on the boys shoulder. The boy screemed in horror and fell from the iron fence. Everyone looked down while the boy fell in the lake. "BRANDON!!!" his mother yelled. His body disappeared in the dark water. Alan Grant was mad. He punched the iron bars. "THAT was why I didn't wanted STUPID TOURISTS on the island!!!" Meanwhile Brandon swam to the land and climbed out of the water. The dinosaurs saw him but didn't thought he was any harm. Ingliasias immediately stepped to the front and aimed his gun. “Don't worry, people. If anything comes to close to that boy, it’s dead”. “Does that boy have a cell phone”, Grant asked irritated. “Well…”, the man looked down, “I think the water…”, “of course” said Grant. Grant opened a small cabinet that was located beneight the floor. There were all sorts of security equipment in it. He took a black, heavy mobile phone from it. “This time, Jurassic Park is prepared for everything.” "What are you gonna do?" "Well Ingliasias, I'm throwing this phone to that brat. Then we'll find a..." Ingliasias stopped listening and started climbing the fence. "When they say the thrill is gone, then it's time to take it back." He jumped from the tower. Grant looked down and saw that Ingliasias had opened his parachute. Brandon looked up to the tower. He hoped they would throw a rope or a ladder or something. He only saw that the armed guard covered him. Something was thrown from the tower, coming in his direction. When he saw the parachute, he knew someone was coming after him. Ingliasias landed next to the boy and immediately aimed his gun at the forest. "Ingliasias, do you hear me?" “Yes, Dr. Grant”. “Fine, fine. This will go on your permanent record!” “I guess so.” "Shall I protect these people while you're gone?" "I'm sure you can handle those DRAGON-flies. There are Ornitholestes down here. Very fast and agile creatures. I can protect this boy better from here than up there." Grant took switched his phone to another channel. "Temple Tower to Control Room." "Jessica Harding here." "Ah Jess, listen, I have a situation here. A boy has jumped from the tower." Jess didn't said anything. "He is fine ofcourse, he is below with the Mussauride herd. Ingliasias has taken the bait, and has also jumped of the tower. Deborah has to pick them up." '' Category:Alternate Fanons Category:Jurassic Park IV